Modern civil and military aircraft depend on quality microwave assemblies like those produced by W. L. Gore & Associates for reliable performance. Yet the challenges of installation in tight airframe environments can often degrade lower-quality cables, requiring replacement long before the expected end of life. In Gore’s White Paper: Reducing Life Cycle Costs with Reliable Airframe Microwave Assemblies, we take a closer look at how higher-quality cable assemblies deliver lower costs, greater productivity, and a host of additional benefits.

Extreme aerospace conditions can compromise the performance of airframe cable assemblies. Aside from the challenges of installation, rigorous flight conditions bring rapid temperature and pressure changes, as well as potential contamination from fuels, oils and fluids. Maintaining signal integrity in these tough environments is essential to ensuring the reliability of an aircraft’s sophisticated electronic systems.

GORE-FLIGHT® Microwave Assemblies for Aircraft are lightweight, durable and proven to improve fuel efficiency and increase payload while reducing operating costs.

A recent study showed that users of microwave/RF cable assemblies expect high-quality, long-lasting performance; however, more than 75 percent of these users are replacing their assemblies frequently, with the most common cause of failure identified as damage during installation or operation. Depending on the frequency, the direct cost for replacing cable assemblies on a single piece of equipment can reach $250,000 over the life of the system — and this does not include the indirect costs such as delayed production schedules, bad products, or retesting and calibration.

This design has been superseded by RCN 9047-26

Extended service life and decreased surface temperature are two key features of GORE Performance Fiber for High Performance Ropes.

Production goals met and exceeded without enlarging the baghouse. The bags have performed consistently well for the past 12 years, with scheduled changeouts every 24 months (although bag life has reached 30 months).

The first set of GORE membrane filter bags lasted 50 months and provided more than 48 months of service at maximum production. Over a four-year period, three bag changeouts were averted, saving $43,200 in labor and $32,400 in bags.

Constant and/or highly repetitive cable movement can compromise the measurement precision of high-performance vector network analyzers (VNAs). With the most precise measurements, GORE VNA Microwave/RF Test Assemblies from W. L. Gore & Associates set the industry standard for VNAs through 70 GHz. They’re specifically engineered for metrology and critical test and measurement applications. Leading manufacturers choose our test assemblies because of the improved performance they see in their equipment.

When it comes to long-length microwave coaxial assemblies, their phase/loss stability and repeatability, as well as shielding effectiveness, have historically not been well documented. This is largely due to the low demand for these types of assemblies and lack of standardized testing procedures. Published by W. L. Gore & Associates, White Paper: Phase Stability, Loss Stability and Shielding Effectiveness of Long Length provides some much-needed insights into this type of equipment to help operators, engineers and manufacturers find the right extended-length solutions.

Secondary after-filter blinding was eliminated. GORE membrane filter bags were cost justified in less than one month. Bag life was expected to approach two years. Customer quickly converted all SAN and ABS dryer systems to GORE membrane filter bags. Customer increased profits substantially in these areas.